1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in plasma display panels and to improvements in methods of driving plasma display panels. In particular, the present invention provides a plasma display panel (referred to hereinafter as “PDP”) with an optimal cell structure such as a triangle cell arrangement and an improved driving structure for optimally driving a PDP.
2. Related Art
A cathode ray tube (CRT) has long been the display device for displaying images on a television. In a CRT display, a gun fires a beam of negatively-charged particles (electrons) inside a large glass tube. The electrons excite phosphor atoms along the wide end of the tube, which causes the phosphor atoms to light up. The video image is produced by lighting up different areas of the phosphor coating with different colors at different intensities. Although the CRT increase the screen width in a CRT display, the length of the tube must be increased as well in order to give the scanning electron gun room to reach all parts of the screen. Consequently, a CRT having a big screen is heavy and takes up a sizeable space.
The conventional PDP was introduced to overcome some of the drawbacks of the CRT display. Specifically, the conventional PDP provides a display device with a large display screen in the form of a flat panel display, and provides an image quality and performance equal to or superior to the CRT display.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a top view and a side view, respectively of a conventional PDP 10. The conventional PDP 10 is a matrix device having individual cells defined by the intersection of row electrodes 17 and column electrodes 13. The row electrodes 17 are arranged horizontally along the screen and the column electrodes 13 are arranged vertically along the display screen. As such, the horizontal and vertical electrodes form a basic grid with cells.
FIG. 1B discloses a cross sectional side view of a single cell of a conventional grid format AC PDP 10. The display panel 10 has a rear plate 11 made of a transparent material such as glass. A column electrode 13, also referred to as an address electrode, is disposed centrally on the rear plate 11 of the cell. A dielectric layer 12 is disposed on the rear plate 11 and on the address electrode 13 such that the dielectric layer 12 covers the address electrode 13. Furthermore, rib walls 14 are located parallel to the address electrode 13 and are disposed on the dielectric layer 12. The rib walls 14 separate the cell from neighboring cells. The inside rib walls 14 of the cell is coated with a phosphor material 15 such that the phosphor material 15 gives off light when they are exposed to other light.
The upper portion of the cell includes a row electrode 17 also referred to as a display electrode, which is covered by an insulating dielectric material 18 and covered by a protective layer 16.
According to the conventional PDP 10 discussed above, each cell requires at lease one address electrode 13 intersecting with one pair of display electrode 17 (scan and common electrodes). Therefore, the conventional PDP 10 requires a large amount of address electrodes thereby requiring a large amount of integrated circuits. Consequently, the conventional PDP requires a higher voltage to drive the complex integrated circuit having a large amount of address electrodes. Thus, the conventional PDP 10 is costly to manufacture and also produces a large amount of heat during operation. Accordingly, there is a need to reduce the cost of the PDP by simplifying the integrated circuits of the PDP such that it requires a minimal amount of electrodes to function optimally. In addition, there is also a need to provide a method of driving the PDP to improve image quality.